On this date in 1984, just before departure after serving as the UK's High Commissioner to Canada since 1981, Lord Moran sent a report of his final impressions of Canada to the British Foreign in London. His critique was devastating, with his contempt for Pierre Trudeau and indeed, most personalities in Canadian politics of the day, coming through on each page.
“Many of my colleagues here admire him,” he wrote of Trudeau. “I cannot say I do. He is an odd fish and his own worst enemy, and on the whole, I think his influence on Canada in the last 16 years has been detrimental.”
Moran then went on to lament what he called the “low quality” of Canadian politicians of all parties. He wrote that Canadians leaders in business and finance were much more impressive.
You can read Moran's entire report at the link below.
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/radio4/transcripts/Lord-Moran.pdfArthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney's best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen's Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.